


New Insight on Nodacrux

by elfgirl931



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Unresolved Sexual Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-18
Updated: 2014-07-18
Packaged: 2018-02-09 10:09:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,610
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1978869
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elfgirl931/pseuds/elfgirl931
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A mission on the planet Nodacrux, renowned for its violent thunderstorms, goes awry, and the team is forced to take shelter. A broken air conditioner brings Kaidan to a realization.</p>
            </blockquote>





	New Insight on Nodacrux

**Author's Note:**

> Written as a gift for kaidaned on Tumblr, featuring her own Eden Shepard.

      The mission on Nodacrux had been a disaster from start to finish. First there were swarms of Thorian creepers to deal with, and then the firefight with the rogue Exogeni scientists, and now an enormous thunderstorm was brewing right over their pickup point. Shepard drove the Mako haphazardly, dodging debris stirred up by the wind as she shouted at Joker to find another pickup point.

     “It’s no use, Commander,” his voice crackled over the comm. “The storm is huge. It’s interfering with communications, tracking, you name it. You need to get to shelter fast and ride it out - lightning from this one could fry the Mako’s shields and cook you guys inside it.”

      Kaidan held on to his seat’s armrests as Shepard swore and jerked the steering wheel hard to the left. He’d mostly gotten used to her driving, but he and the rest of the crew still held on with white knuckles as the Mako careened over a few bumpy ridges in the ground. He checked the display in front of him and gritted his teeth - the storm would overtake them soon, and the energy readings were off the charts.

      “Shepard, if we don’t find shelter soon we’re dead!” Garrus called from the back seat. “Nodacrux storms can - “

      “I know!” she bellowed, slamming down on the rocket boost button, sending the Mako flying over a sharp ridge. “I’m looking for something, anything!”

      After they slammed back down to the ground and Kaidan’s head stopped rattling, he noticed something on his display. “Turn there! Something’s on radar, I think it’s a bunch of pre-fabs!”

      Shepard wheeled the Mako around and sure enough, a small cluster of pre-fab colony shelters sat nestled in the hills about a hundred feet away from them. They roared up and practically tumbled out of their vehicle, and Garrus was barely able to hack the locks before the storm hit.

      They all slumped down against the wall, breathing heavily while the thunder roared outside. The air inside the prefab had a musty smell to it, and Garrus stood up after a moment to check the air filters.

     “Everyone ok?” Shepard asked, pulling her helmet off. She wrinkled her nose in the stale air and shook out her hair irritably. 

       “Fine, Shepard,” Garrus muttered as he fiddled with the wall panel. “This pre-fab’s been abandoned for a while. I can’t seem to get the air recyclers working….”

      “Wonderful.” She rolled her eyes and glanced at Kaidan. “How about you, Alenko?”

       “Um. Sorry, what?”  _Damn_. She’d caught him staring at her hair, which was rumpled slightly as though she’d been sleeping. That and the faint glisten of sweat on her skin had taken his mind to some very inappropriate places.

       “I asked if you were ok. You hit your head or something?”

       “No, Commander. I’m fine. Just, uh, distracted.”  _Shit_. “By the storm. Outside, ma’am,” he added lamely.

        Shepard narrowed her eyes at him, but when he didn’t volunteer anything further, she shrugged and brought up her omni-tool. A patchy scan of the storm flickered to life on her holo screen, and she cursed under her breath. After trying her comm button a few times, she sighed and leaned against the wall, tapping her foot on the floor in annoyance.

      “All right, guys. Can’t raise the Normandy, storm’s interfering with communications. And from what I can get on the scans, we’re gonna be stuck here for a while, maybe even the whole night. I’ve never seen such a big storm.” She took off one of her gloves and wiped sweat off her forehead. “How’s that air recycler coming, Garrus?”

       “I’ve got it working, actually,” he answered distractedly, gazing at his omni-tool. “Just can’t get the air conditioner going. I know humans have a lower tolerance for heat than turians, but I don’t think I’ll be able to get it started…” **  
**

“Fabulous,” Shepard groused. “Well, I don’t  know about you two, but I’m not roasting in my armor all night.” She sat down on one of the room’s bunkbeds and started unfastening the catches at the sides of her chestplate and shoulder guards. As she removed each piece, she stacked it carefully on the floor beside the bed. Her movements were smooth and precise, obviously born of long practice.

        Kaidan felt heat flaring across his face when he realized that he was staring at his commanding officer while she undressed. He looked away quickly, but not in time to avoid seeing Shepard unzip the front of her skin-tight undersuit. He turned towards the opposite wall, unfastening his own armor slowly and stacking it in the corner.

 _Think about hockey_ , he told himself firmly.  _Hockey. Definitely not Shepard. Definitely don’t think about Shepard undressing._  He sat down heavily on one of the other bunk beds and pulled his helmet off. A drop of red suddenly plopped onto the leg of his undersuit, and he immediately brought his hand to his nose.

      “Shit, Alenko, you’re bleeding!” Shepard exclaimed **,** moving quickly over to him. She knelt down in front of him, and he nearly choked when he saw that she’d stripped down to the tank top and shorts she wore beneath her undersuit. “Dammit, I thought you said you didn’t hit your head!”

     Kaidan didn’t answer at first - his thoughts had stuttered to a halt at the sight of Shepard’s long, bare legs. Her smooth dark skin practically glowed in the pre-fab’s dim lighting as she crossed the room to rip a packet of medigel out of her hardsuit’s lining.

       “I must have overclocked my amp in the last fight,” he said faintly. “I guess I just didn’t notice with all the excitement.” When Shepard knelt in front of him again, he kept his eyes locked on the space just next to her ear, trying desperately not to let his gaze wander.

       At first, it seemed like she wanted to wipe the blood off of his face herself, but then seemed to check herself when she finally looked at him directly. For his part, Kaidan felt pinned by her violet eyes - he couldn’t have moved even if he’d wanted to. “Well, here,” she said with sudden gruffness, shoving the medigel into his hands and looking away from him. “You have some meds for the headache?”

      “Uh, yeah. But how did you know I’d have - “

      Shepard was halfway across the room and engaging in conversation with Garrus before Kaidan could finish his question. He had to force himself to look away from the long lines of her legs and the tiny slice of skin that showed at the hem of her tank top. He turned his attention back to his nose, using medigel and the edge of his t-shirt to wipe the remaining blood away. Then he took two capsules out of their pouch on his suit and swallowed them to stave off his impending headache.

       With that taken care of, he realized just how warm and stuffy the air in the pre-fab was, but with the storm raging outside, opening the windows was out of the question. Sweat slid down his forehead and soaked the neck of his t-shirt, but he certainly had no intention of taking it off - he’d never feel comfortable with stripping in front of his teammates the way Shepard clearly did.

      Kaidan happened to glance over to where she sat on the opposite bunkbed, and his heart did a strange little dip in his chest, almost like he’d missed a step coming down the stairs. Shepard had her back to him, and was stretching. She’d wrapped the length of her mussed black hair around her hand, presumably to relieve some of the heat. The back of her neck and the curve of her shoulders beneath her tank top was a strangely intimate sight - Kaidan found that he almost couldn’t breath as he watched her. It was one thing to see her walking around wearing only her underclothes, and quite another to see her this way - no armor, no hardened exterior of command. Just Shepard.

      He tore his gaze away from her and sighed, burying his face in his hands.  _She’s my commanding officer_ , he reminded himself sternly. When he finally looked up again, Shepard was lying down on her side and looking at him. Garrus chose that moment to turn off the lights, so the image of her face was burned onto Kaidan’s vision while his eyes got used to the dark. For a while, the only sound was Garrus arranging himself against the wall, muttering as he struggled to find a comfortable position to rest his head.

        Kaidan shifted his weight across the musty mattress, trying to get comfortable in the close, heavy air. He was hovering between sleep and discomfort when he heard Shepard sigh from her bunk.

        “Hey, Alenko,” she whispered.

        “What is it, ma’am?” he asked, immediately awake again.

         She didn’t answer right away, and the silence seemed to stretch out forever. “Did you take your meds?” she finally asked. Her tone of voice seemed to indicate it wasn’t really what she wanted to say. “I want you in top shape when we get up in the morning.”

       “Yes ma’am, I did. Don’t worry about me.”

       “Cut the ‘ma’am’ crap,” she said sleepily, the thin mattress crinkling as she rolled over. “Just call me Shepard.”

         It took Kaidan a very long time to fall asleep after that. He told himself it was the heat and not because he couldn’t stop thinking about Shepard. _Having a thing for my commanding officer is not appropriate,_ he reminded himself again and again. For all the good it did him - his dreams that night were filled with her.


End file.
